Appears to be payoff for Jordan releasing Israeli Embassy security guard and threats of religious war by Palestinians.

Numerous news sources are reporting that the Israeli security cabinet has agreed to remove metal detectors place at entrances to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem after a terror attack killed two Israeli policeman using weapons hidden at the al-Aqsa Mosque.

This eminently sensible security measure was met with Palestinian violence (including the stabbing death of three Israelis having Sabbath dinner). There were many other threats of holy war against the Jews incited not just by Palestinians, but also by other Muslim leaders around the world.

Most important, an Israeli security guard at the Israeli Embassy in Jordan killed an attacker who stabbed him. The Jordanians effectively took the security guard and other Israeli diplomats hostage by refusing to allow the security guard to leave the country.

Earlier today the entire Israeli diplomatic staff at the embassy, including the security guard, were allowed to leave.

Personnel from the Israeli Embassy in Jordan, headed by Ambassador Einat Shlein crossed the Allenby Bridge into Israel earlier this evening.

The Times of Israel reported earlier today that the release of the diplomats appeared to be part of a broader deal with the Jordanians:

The staff of Israel’s embassy in Amman returned from Jordan through the Allenby Crossing on Monday night, including a security officer who had been wounded in a stabbing incident that caused a diplomatic flare-up between the two countries.

The Prime Minister’s Office said the return of the staffers, led by Ambassador Einat Schlein, was facilitated by “close cooperation” between Israel and Amman over the last day. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the guard’s release was part of a larger agreement to deescalate tensions over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem….

Earlier Monday, the director of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, Nadav Argaman, was in Amman in an effort to resolve the crisis, which erupted on Sunday, after the security officer shot dead his stabber and another Jordanian national inside the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman….

According to a readout published by Jordanian state media, the king demanded Israel find an “immediate solution” to ongoing crisis at the Temple Mount, and remove metal detectors it installed at entrances to the site following a terror attack earlier this month in which two Israeli police officers were killed just outside the compound by three assailants who had smuggled guns inside the holy site.

The king spoke of “the necessity to remove the measures taken by the Israeli side since the recent crisis began,” according to the readout and in reference to the unrest across Jerusalem and the West Bank after the implementation of the new security arrangements at the Temple Mount following the July 14 attack.

In an apparent payoff to the Jordanians, the Israelis just hours later decided to remove the metal detectors. Haaretz reports:

Israel’s security cabinet decided during a meeting on Monday night to remove the metal detectors installed at the entrances to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The metal detectors have aroused a wave of protests among Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, which have echoed across the Arab world.

A senior Israeli official who attended the meeting noted that the metal detectors “will be replaced by advanced technological means” that will enable “smart inspection” throughout Jerusalem’s Old City to ensure the security of visitors to the Temple Mount compound.

If this deal was a result of Jordanian hostage taking, or threats of religious violence, this capitulation will simply embolden the terrorist and Muslim fanatics behind the violence.

The absurdity of Palestinians complaining about metal detectors was captured by W.R. Mead prior to this latest development:

It would be difficult to imagine a less sympathetic grievance to attract Western support to the Palestinian cause. In fact, the Palestinian response will appear contemptible to anyone who bothers to read even the basic facts of the matter. Israelis can’t go into shopping malls and bus stations, let alone visit the Western Wall, without passing through a metal detector. But Israeli-style security measures are a fact of life in the West as well, with metal detectors now a ubiquitous presence at sports events and, yes, outside religious sites like Notre Dame in Paris.

There is also of course a deep historical irony. With the possible exception of al-Qaeda, Palestinian terrorism—which pioneered the use of plane hijackings, airport attacks, and suicide bombings—has perhaps done more to force the introduction of metal detectors into our daily lives than just about any other cause.

The justification for the deal is that Israel wanted to de-escalate, and gets the fig-leaf of “advanced technological means” as a substitute for the metal detectors.

First, I’m not so sure this will de-escalate anything, as the fanatics have insisted there be no new security means used. And sure enough, the capitulation is deemed insufficient, as The Independent reports:

A [Israeli] spokesperson said “sophisticated technology” will be used instead of the metal detectors, following local reports that high resolution cameras capable of detecting hidden objects would be the alternative.

Israeli security forces in the area are to be boosted until the plan is implemented, in response to a Palestinian terror attack that left two Israeli police officers and three Palestinian gunmen dead.

Earlier on Monday, metal railings were set up at the entrance to the shrine that are expected to be part of future security arrangements.

Sheikh Najeh Bakirat, the director of al-Aqsa Mosque, told Al Jazeera work to remove the scanners had started but the move still does not fulfil the demands of protesters as the cameras will remain.

Second, appearing to give in to hostage taking and violence simply encourages more of the same.The worst elements in the Arab and Muslim world will be emboldened, and will take Israeli capitulation as proof that only violence gets concessions.

Netanyahu and the security cabinet fully understand these points.

So what really was going on here?

[This post has been updated multiple times, and will be updated as we find out more.]

What’s really going on here is that Netanyahu remains true to form, exactly the squish he has always been. The real question is why you, and so many commenters here, were ever under the delusion that he was anything else. His decades-long record speaks loudly and clearly; he gives a good speech, but when push comes to shove he will always crumple like the tissue-paper tiger he is. Expecting anything else of him is folly.

BS. As usual, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Remember, you’re the one who thought Palin was “the first women vice presidential candidate”; that sets the level on your ignorance even of your own country’s politics, let alone that of another country.

Netanyahu has never stood up to anyone in his life. He throws hissy fits, he makes dramatic stands, and then he folds. Every. Single. Time. Anyone, starting with his own parents and parents-in-law, who has ever looked to him for resolution or commitment to principles has been bitterly disappointed. The episode you linked to is typical; he threw a little tantrum, asserted his little dignity, but all it took was one stern look from 0bama and he withered.

Being shot in combat is no evidence of possessing a spine. On the contrary, being a good soldier is all about going along and not resisting. In a young and reckless soldier these are good qualities; in a prime minister, not so much.

Whom do you claim he stood up to, in order to get shot? As a soldier you don’t stand up to anyone; you do your duty and obey orders, and make as few waves as possible until you’ve done your time and get out.

The prime quality in a good soldier is obedience. Soldiers are there to be given orders and to carry them out. Not to stand up to them, or to anyone. Please explain what use a spine is to a soldier, or how the lack of one could prevent someone from being shot in combat.

I’M sorry, but I just cannot see how this is a positive thing for Israel. My thoughts are just my opinion, but I think the Palestinians will only consider this as encouragement – a great big “Atta boy!” from their declared enemy.

Yeah. This is weakness. Remember OBL and the strong horse and the weak horse.

You need to understand the kind of liars we are dealing with.

How do you turn a moderate Muslim into a radical Muslim? Back down. Because the moderate is only moderate because he doesn’t think now is the time to win. But by backing down we convince him that, hey, maybe now is the time.

Trump has surrounded himself with a crowd of clowns that actually take advice from the enemy.

We can expect an immediate escalation of this type of thing, as Israel has just signaled a major change in their “no negotiation” policy. Even if there is something else going on which would tend to give us a different perspective, it is still a troubling precedent. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite Netanyahu in the tuchus.

What “no negotiation” policy? On the contrary, Israel’s policy for decades has been “everything is negotiable, and under sufficient pressure we will give in on anything; if we haven’t done so, increase the pressure”. Netanyahu has been worse than other PMs in this regard, but not that much worse; they’ve all more or less followed this policy.

I would say that the greatest mistake here is the inability to realize how things would play out, and how they would be pushed to cave in on this. If they had been honest with themselves about how weak they would be when the pushback started they should never have put them in. Instead, it looks like they wanted to do a political grandstanding move to look tough by putting these in, without ever thinking through the likely consequences, and without understanding their inability to stand tough when things got hard.

Since the Pals regard the metal detectors as degrading, Israeli Jews should also not be required to pass through degrading metal detectors when they ascend the Temple Mount through the entrance reserved for non-Muslims. The metal detectors there should be replaced with the same new hi-tech security devices that will be used at the Muslim entrances.

More BS. The difference is that when they’re fighting a religious war only the dedicated Moslems join them; when they’re not, they get help from the communists and Christians among them. Do you think George Habash or Hilarion Capucci would have joined a Moslem jihad?

PEACE! GRANT peace to every Muslim living outside the Middle East. Not just any ‘peace’ though… Peace that they understand, the same type of ‘peace’ they offer every infidel that doesn’t agree with them. Make Islam truly a ‘Religion of Peace’… The peace of the grave.